A Discernment and Apostasy watch site for African Saints.
Prove all things..(1 Thesa.5:21)
Test Spirits..(I John 4:1)
Like the Bereans, check whether things are so(Acts 17:11)

Google+ Followers

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Ronnie Floyd - the Next SBC President - Endorses Robert Morris' "First Fruits Cursings" Teaching : Morris says non-tithers are arrogant, thieves, and subject to demon possession. He says do not pay rent or electric bill until you first give 10% to your church. He says church members must tithe to avoid divorce, or losing their kids or jobs to the devourer.

As I have already written about,
just a few weeks ago Ronnie delivered a sermon to get his church
members to believe that unless they fork over 10% of their income to
their church, they are probably not real Christians. And to make his
point he did not quote the Bible, instead he quoted the most abusive
first-fruit-tithe-teaching pastor that is out there now: Robert Morris.

Here is what Ronnie told his church members:

"Pastor Robert Morris says 'it's a real shame that Christians
don't believe the importance of writing the first check [10% of your
income to your church] because God is the one we value first. God is the
one we respect first....God is the one we fear first. It's not the
mortgage company we fear first, it's not the U.S. government fear first,
we should live our lives fearing God first."

This is Ronnie's mistake: he thinks "giving to God" means "giving to
Ronnie's church". No, Ronnie, when I put my family first, and I pay my
rent, and my insurance, and my kid's college tuition, and pay for my
family's food and shelter FIRST, it means I place them above your
501(c)3 institution. It doesn't mean I don't fear God, or that I don't
respect God. And the truth is, as Wade Burleson points out in his article today,
this is what more and more church member are realizing, and it is why
people are leaving church. They realize men like Ronnie Floyd are trying
to manipulate them into thinking their church IS God's kingdom.

Back to Ronnie: Next, Ronnie put up Morris' mug on the overhead image
screens (see image above), and the quotes from his book "Blessed Life":

"He writes a book called 'The Blessed Life'. You never read 'The
Blessed Life"? You oughta get a copy of 'The Blessed Life'. It's one of
the greatest books on financial matters that I've ever read."

Wow.
Do SBC'ers know what is in this book? Ronnie says it's the best book
he's read on finances. Only two explanations for that endorsement:
either this is the ONLY book on finances Floyd has ever read or
remembers reading, or by "best" he means "if my members will believe
this nonsense in this book I can double or triple my church's revenue".
Take your pick.

But this book has a tagline at the bottom which says: "The Simple Secret of Achieving Guaranteed Financial Results."

This is health and wealth prosperity teaching. The book teaches people
the concept of "first fruits" giving, that God requires the very first
10% of a Christian's income to be given to their church. This is not a
recommendation - this is a requirement, for Morris teaches in this book
that if you DO give 10%, God will bless you financially, "guaranteed".
And God will "rebuke the devourer" - you know, like the mafia boss
protecting your business if you share the profits with him. But if you
do NOT give 10%, you are cursed by God, and God will not prevent "the
devourer" from hurting you, your children, your spouse, your marriage
and your finances. You think I'm exaggerating. No, this is what Morris
teaches in the book, and what he teaches from the pulpit.

And Ronnie Floyd is pushing this nonsense on his congregation..

But Ronnie wraps things up with this quote from Robert Morris - note, he
is quoting from a book written by Robert Morris, not from the bible:

"Robert Morris says these words: 'When God blesses you when you
give the first fruits, being blessed means you're having supernatura
power working for you'. Listen carefully, he says then 'By contrast,
being cursed means having supernatural power working against you."

Now Ronnie is going to interpret what Robert Morris says. He is not interpreting scripture, he is interpreting Robert Morris:

"When we honor the Lord with the first fruits, then I've got the
supernatural power of God working for everything else in that bucket.
But listen: if I don't wanna honor God with my first fruits, then I've
got the supernatural power of God working against me and my buckets."

Yep, don't give 10% to Ronnie's church, and God is going to work against you. You're "cursed".

When you get right down to it, this is about as anti-Christian of a message as you can get. As one writer said recently,
to say you will be cursed if you do not tithe is really to publicly
mock the work of Christ on the cross. Ronnie surely knows Galatians
3:13, where Paul says "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us".

So not only does Ronnie spit on the work of Christ with this teaching of
the "supernatural power of God working against you" if you don't tithe,
but he does it in the most arrogant and condescending way throughout
the entire sermon. Watch him strut around and hoot and holler and point
and bellow, here at this link. Or if you don't have 50 minutes of you life to waste, watch the 3 minute clip below.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, will likely be the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

I think that is perfect. The SBC deserves a man like Ronnie - a man
whose search for revenue at his church ultimately harms the faith he
professes.

And this is the man the SBC will likely get as their next president.

Robert
Morris Lays Down the Law: Non-Tithers are "Arrogant" and
"Thieves" And Subject to Demon Possession

"Listen to me carefully, I'm going
to say something very strong: Any person that doesn't tithe is
arrogant, because you believe you can make it your way and not doing it
God's way. And you HAVE to be arrogant to steal from God. You have to be
extremely arrogant to steal from God. And please understand if you don't tithe, that's an open door to demons...and
I don't say that to make you feel condemned or to argue about tithing.
And no matter how many doors you close in your life, if you're not a
tither, you've got an open door to the 'enemy'." Robert Morris 9/30/13"

------------------------------

If it wasn't bad enough already with Robert Morris telling Christians
everywhere they must tithe to "rebuke the devourer", to avoid divorce,
to protect your kids - now Robert Morris has thrown down the gauntlet.
Now non-tithers are thieves - they're arrogant, AND they are subject to
demon possession.

This sort of nonsense from Morris - this abuse, really is what it is -
declaring Christians at his church to be thieves, that they are arrogant
(look at the video and his finger pointing - just who is the most
arrogant person in his massive auditorium?) - that no matter how good
they are in other areas of their Christian life if they don't fork over
10% they are still subject to little devils ruining their lives - is so
laughable given that Gateway markets themselves as being "all about people":

Really? "All about people"? Robert Morris loves "people"? What sort of a
man tells his congregation that the 80% of them that don't tithe
(probably more) are arrogant and criminals and will have opened
themselves to demons entering their lives? That isn't love. What sort of
a madman tells Christian people looking for spiritual hope that because
they can't give 10% of their income that their resources will be
consumed by some unseen "devourer"?

And his finger-pointing, and his emphasis: "Listen to me very carefully, I'm going to say something very strong..." And his emphasis of the primacy and urgency of this single matter of tithing in a person's life by saying "No matter how many doors you close in your life, if you're not tithing..."

To Robert, there is nothing more important in a Christian's life,
nothing that will determine your life's outcome, than how much money you
give.

Robert, let me tell you something. Read carefully, this is very strong:
You are abusing the people of your church. You should be ashamed. I
wished that people just heard you and laughed it off and smiled and
dismissed your claims as fairy tales. But I hear grown men on the video
amen'ing your nonsense so I know many are taking you seriously.

You've turned the "good news" into very, very bad news.

Robert, that morning you were the most arrogant man in the church
building. Look in the mirror, Robert. YOU are the arrogant one.

And I dare say perhaps YOU and your family members who draw fat salaries
from the offerings of these people you are abusing with your yarns are
more apt to be seen as thieves.

But I will stop short of claiming your false teaching has opened a door
to the devils and demons and devourers - I wouldn't ever stoop that low,
Robert.

Robert Morris Shakedown at LifeChurch: Don't Pay Rent or Electric Bill
Until FIRST You Pay the Church - Or 100% of Your Money is Cursed

"Don't give the first portion [of
your income] to the mortgage company because the mortgage company does
not have the power to bless your finances. Only God does. Don't give the
first portion to the electric company, the electric company cannot
bless your finances, only God can. Would you rather live with 100% of
your income and all of it cursed, or 90% of your income and all of it
blessed. That's what the Bible says." Robert Morris at Life Church, October 2013

-------------------------

Above is more October tithing nonsense from Robert Morris - but to be fair, he delivers his any month of the year.

Robert Morris was invited this month to preach his first-fruits, multiplication tithing gobbledygook to Craig Groeschel's Life Church
- touted as the largest church in North America with 46,000 members at
multiple sites. Craig's church is starting a new fund-raising drive
called "Multiply" (by 0.9 apparently), and he brought the master tithing
shake down artist Robert Morris to kick things off.

When Robert goes to these churches all over the country he basically gives the same message:
that your income is cursed, and needs to be "redeemed" by you forking
over the first 10% of it to your church. If you don't do this, God will
take it anyways, and you'll be cursed, and your family, marriage,
children are all at risk from a "devourer".

And some advice from the Watchdog that is based on truth and not fables, that is designed to help you and not hurt you:

"Do give the first, and biggest and most generous payments to the
mortgage and to the electric company - and to your kids' college
education and to your wife and to your retirement account - BEFORE
giving large sums of money to your church. Don't ever, EVER, put the
needs of a 501(c) organization above the immediate and long-term needs
of your family and then be fool enough to say you're doing it for Jesus.
Furthermore, the church does not have the willingness or the ability to
"bless you" financially, and all of the aforementioned DO have the
ability to bless you as they will return services commensurate with the
payments you make."

And THAT, Robert, is what the bible says. Like here:

"People who don’t take care
of their relatives, and especially their own families, have given up
their faith. They are worse than someone who doesn’t have faith in the
Lord." I Tim 5:8